Eureka Rebellion - Stockade Description

Stockade Description

The stockade itself was a ramshackle affair hastily constructed over the following days from timber and overturned carts. The structure was never meant to be a military stockade or fortress. In the words of Lalor: "it was nothing more than an enclosure to keep our own men together, and was never erected with an eye to military defence". Lalor had already outlined a plan whereby, "if the government forces come to attack us, we should meet them on the Gravel Pits, and if compelled, we should retreat by the heights to the old Canadian Gully, and there we shall make our final stand".

Irish born people were strongly represented at the Eureka Stockade. Eureka historians have discovered that as well as most of the miners inside the stockade, in the area where the defensive position was established, the miners were overwhelmingly Irish. Even the password used at the Eureka Stockade – Vinegar Hill – was the scene of an 1804 Irish convict uprising in New South Wales.

During 2 December, some 1500 men trained in and around the stockade. A further two hundred Americans, the Independent Californian Rangers, under the leadership of James McGill, arrived about 4.00 pm. The Americans were armed with revolvers and Mexican knives and possessed horses. In a fateful decision, McGill decided to take most of the Californian Rangers away from the stockade to intercept rumoured British reinforcements coming from Melbourne. Rede's spies observed these actions. That night many of the miners went back to their own tents after the traditional Saturday night carousing, with the assumption that the Queen's military forces would not be sent to attack on the Sabbath (Sunday). A small contingent of about 150 miners remained at the stockade overnight, which the spies reported to Rede.